STEM CELL RESEARCH FACES BUDGET CRUNCH

Private sector is being encouraged to step in, help advance studies

The cash-strapped federal government’s ability to fund stem-cell research has become severely limited, the top official in charge of the research told attendees at the World Stem Cell Summit on Wednesday. So the private sector is being encouraged to play a larger role, to take over some functions, provide order and reduce needless duplication of effort.

Mahendra Rao, director of the National Institute of Regenerative Medicine, delivered the news in a morning address to attendees of the summit, being held in downtown San Diego through Friday. Rao knows the private sector well; he joined the NIH from Life Technologies. He was vice president of stem cells and regenerative medicine at the Carlsbad company.

The National Institutes of Health funds about $1 billion in stem-cell research out of its total $32 billion annual budget, Rao said. His agency is part of the NIH.

“That money has remained essentially static over the last five years,” Rao said. “It’s not going to increase over the next couple of years. If anything, there’s going to be a cut of 5 to 7 percent.”

Meanwhile, enthusiastic researchers have generated thousands of lines of artificial embryonic stem cells to study diseases or develop treatments. These cells, called induced pluripotent stem cells, have sparked an explosion in creative new approaches to cure diseases. But without any overarching plan for how to store or distribute these cells, the effort is disorganized.

“We calculate that more than 50,000 lines have already been made,” Rao said. But except from California’s stem-cell agency, there’s no co-coordinate plan on how to “bank” these stem cells for use, he said. “There’s no central model of distribution because the number of lines is too large.”

Without coordination, researchers have made a surfeit of lines to help some diseases, leaving other diseases neglected, Rao said.

Before Rao spoke, Alan Trounson, the president of California’s stem-cell agency outlined his proposal to reduce the number of stem-cell lines to a more manageable amount. Trounson said cells can be made compatible to the immune systems of large groups of people. Just 500 stem-cell lines could cover the vast majority of the population, he said.